Welcome to Professional and Technical Services (PTS) – experts in chemical disinfection for infection prevention. Our goal is to educate and provide you the latest resources related to cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces, medical devices and hands. As specialists in disinfectant chemistries, microbiology, environmental cleaning and disinfection, facility assessments and policy and procedure creation we are dedicated to helping any person or facility who uses chemical disinfectants.

Friday, August 26, 2016

I never know when inspiration for a blog may come
along.Sometimes it’s a result of a
question I received, or a newspaper, magazine or peer reviewed article I’ve
read, or some ridiculous post on Facebook.This week, it happened when I checked into my hotel room after a rather
brutal travel day that kept me up for over 22 hours.After ending up in the wrong hotel and
charming my way into a room and a cancellation at my other hotel, I crashed -
but not before I took the picture that happens to be the inspiration for this
blog.

Maybe it was because I was punch drunk from being over
tired, but the sight of these refillable containers in a well-respected hotel
chain made me cringe, and yet it didn’t stop me from jumping into the tub to
take a picture. I was also sure to avoid
the use of any of the soap they had offered the next morning. Why?
Because topping up bulk soaps is just plain gross. In fact 1 in 4 dispensers in public bathrooms
are contaminated. Combine that with the
fact that there is enough evidence from published studies proving that bacteria
can be found and thrive in soap dispensers, you can be sure that I will not be using
it and risk spreading those germs all over my hands (or body or hair).

One example is a study by Zapka et al
that looked at bacterial hand contamination and transfer after use of
refillable soap dispensers. The study showed that washing hands with
contaminated liquid soap actually increases the number of gram-negative
bacteria on hands, directly demonstrating that bacteria from contaminated hands
can be transferred to secondary surfaces. The researchers concluded that washing
with contaminated soap not only defeats the purpose of hand washing but may
contribute to the transmission of potentially harmful bacteria.

Don’t believe that the problem only lies with hand
soaps. The disinfectants we use for
daily disinfection, particularly if you’re using a concentrate that needs to be
diluted can be just a bad. There have
been reports of bacteria
growing in solutions of QUATs and that surfaces were dirtier after cleaning
than before cleaning when conducting ATP tests.
One of my favorite questions from the field is whether you can add some
of the same “juice” found in premoistened wipes and poor it into the wipes to
re-wet them because they have dried out.
The answer to that is NO. If you
do not want your wipes to dry, ensure the lid on your wipes container is closed!

I hope I haven’t scared you from using soap dispensers in
public. Hand hygiene is of course
critical to our well-being. I do hope
that you’ll look at refillable soap and disinfectant containers in a new way
and join
me in the “war” against topping up!

Friday, August 19, 2016

With the Olympic hype in the air, I thought I would keep the
theme going.Last week in the “Let
down of Olympic proportions” blog, I lamented over the fact that all of the
hype over hygiene conditions and illness seemed to be for naught.Don’t get me wrong.It’s not that I’m hoping that the athletes,
their families or spectators get sick.It's just amazing to me that a little media hype over the potential of
getting sick is probably enough to remind people to do what they should be
doing!Washing their hands!

That said, I’m not sure any media hype would have helped the
“green pool” situation…… I’m sure that
many of you have seen the pictures of the bright green pool. Who could miss it?! A google search for “green pools in Rio” lead
to 87,200,000
in just 0.67 seconds! That has to be
a world record of some sort! Wading
through the plethora of articles you need to be a bit of a detective and not
believe verbatim everything that you read.

What seems to be consistent is that an inadvertent addition
of a large quantity of hydrogen peroxide to the pools was added - around 160
litres or 42 gallons to be exact - which essentially inactivated the ‘chlorine’. The fact that mixing hydrogen peroxide and
chlorine together will inactivate each other is true. This reaction essentially will degrade the
chlorine to a point where it is no longer effective meaning certain “organic
compounds” (i.e. algae, probably) could grow in the pool. According to the various news articles I
scoured, when the pools first turned green, officials were
mystified as to why they suddenly had one blue pool, and one green one. Initially
they put it down to a chemical imbalance, which was technically correct,
but were uncertain of the root cause of the problem. Then, according to accounts from some
athletes, the green pools started smelling like farts.

While somewhat humorous, this really is not a laughing
matter. Mixing chemicals deliberately or
inadvertently can lead to serious health risks.
In this case the mixing of chlorine and hydrogen peroxide seems to have
been an error. One that causes the water
to turn green, but did not have a significant health threat. As many articles indicate the green colour
was a result of an algae bloom. In
chatting with my R&D experts it is also conceivable that the green colour
was due to the use of an indicator that turns green when the chlorine levels
are depleted in the pool. In this
scenario, if the water turns acidic by addition of an acidic formulation by
mistake, the chlorine would degrade and the indicator would visually show this
depletion.

Regardless, mixing of chemicals can be dangerous and this
highlights the importance of effective training to ensure those tasked with
using chemicals to chlorinate pools or clean environmental surfaces understand
the potential deadly impact that mixing chemicals can have. As I coined back in 2011, the “Custodial
Chemist” is very prevalent. This group of people believe that their
collective years as professional cleaners is far more knowledgeable then
formulating chemists who have years of education in chemistry or chemical
engineering and develop the products the Custodial Chemist use. The
Custodial Chemist is someone who mixes products together in the belief
they are making a better product (or simplifying their job). Why use a
degreaser or glass cleaner followed by a disinfectant when you can mix them
together and create a degreaser-disinfectant or the best disinfectant glass
cleaner on the market?!

Of course in Rio we’re not talking about cleaning windows,
but regardless of the root cause of how hydrogen peroxide was added to the pool,
a Custodial Chemist was obviously lurking at the poolside!

Friday, August 12, 2016

I’m sure many of you are caught up in the hype of the Summer
Olympics.Who doesn’t like spending 16
days watching athletes compete and cheer on our countries?I’m a fan, but not a super fan.Unless of course I’m around during the
Equestrian events - then I’m glued to the TV! As my husband can attest, if I am
watching the Show Jumping events I am counting strides and leaning forward at
the same time the rider is!

This year’s Olympics has been particularly interesting, as I
cannot think of any other that has been as marred with concerns over potential
infectious diseases. From Zika virus concerns
which lead to a number of golfers
backing out over concerns for their health, the health of their spouses and
future children to the coverage over concerns that have also been whirling for
months for sailors and rowers over the contaminated
water and what bugs lurk in there.

Whenever a group this large congregates, there is bound to
be a bug or two that spreads through the athletes. But have the concerns over contaminated water
and other hygiene conditions come true?
Well, in my quick google search I certainly found numerous news channels prophesying that athletes risk getting sick, but I’ve only found 1 article
published that talks to a Belgian
sailor falling sick after racing.
While some illnesses may being kept low key so as not to ruin the
chances of team sports etc., I would think with all of the hoopla leading up to
the Olympics if people were getting sick we’d hear about it. I mean we have heard about the pools turning
green!

What about the horses?
Like humans they’re prone to getting sick and the riders at the Olympics
and their horses are some of the most highly traveled athletes around! According to several news sources, Dutch Olympic
dressage rider Adelinde Cornelissen entered the arena on her horse
Parzival, guided him through a few movements, and then rode off the field and
out of the competition. Parzival had
been bitten
on the face by a poisonous insect and developed a fever. Cornelissen sensed something was wrong with
her faithful mount and rather than risk his health, she gave up on her Olympic
moment knowing it would also impact her entire team. High fives to Cornelissen!

Now, I’m not jumping on the media hype band wagon. Instead I am wondering if all the hype and
concern about hygienic conditions has in fact increased the focus on
preventative measures such as frequent hand washing. Could it be that because there was a
perceived risk due to the media hype the athletes and their trainers have
stepped up their infection prevention measures?
I know I’m more vigilant when travelling, particularly to areas where
hygiene is not the same as I am accustomed to!

As for watching the Olympics, now that I’m done my blog I
can go check out what happened today.
You can bet I will keep an eye out to see what transpires in terms of
people and horses getting sick!

In recent years, we have put a great focus on the contact
time or dwell time of a disinfectant product.
I could go on ad nauseam about contact time citing numerous examples of
why rapid contact times are important, but I think Drs. Rutala and Weber summed
it up nicely in their “Selection
of an Ideal Disinfectant” article with their statement "fast kill times are important because they give you confidence
that you are killing the prevalent and most common healthcare-associated
pathogens before the disinfectant solution can dry".If you want to read more on this
topic, our “Dirty
to Disinfected in 60 Seconds Flat!” will give you more background. To see the validated results on this topic, a
study looking at the efficacy of Improved Hydrogen Peroxide (IHP) products
versus a Quaternary Ammonium Compound (QUATs) showing that IHP products kill
more in a shorter period of time – something that is definitely relevant for
any facility needing to kill germs!

Why has this become relevant? As we see with many auditors during their observations
of current wipe disinfection practices in busy healthcare facilities, surfaces
tend to be wiped once and then left to air dry. We talked about this in detail
in our “Premature
Evaporation – Is your disinfectant fulfilling your every desire?” blog so I
won’t repeat again. But if I can direct
you to a
study that tested dry times against
label contact times,
only one disinfectant technology achieved the requisite wet time using this
approach. In all other cases, the disinfectant dissipated or evaporated short
of the contact time indicated on the label, requiring re-application (in some
cases multiple re-applications) in order to achieve compliance. If your wipe disinfection practice does not
include multiple applications to achieve the requisite wet times, you may be
leaving your healthcare facility open to HAIs.